361st Friday Blog Roundup

Many months ago, I teasingly told Kristin that I was going to serenade her at BlogHer, though in the end, I didn’t schlep a laptop much less a guitar.  But that does not mean that I can’t mortify her AND myself by serenading her from afar.  I told her that I would do this when she least expected it…

So Kristin, pretend that we are standing in the hallway of the lovely Marriott, perhaps by that Golden Gate Bridge made out of Twizzlers, and I am on one knee, holding Bob Jackson.  I am wearing cords, my Superman t-shirt (but with a long sleeve grey t-shirt underneath because it’s cold in here!), and my chucks.  I have somehow carried not only a guitar but an amp down to the lobby.  And there you are — so I start to warble.

[audio:https://www.stirrup-queens.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/good2.mp3]

Forgive me for choosing “Good Riddance” — it was the last song I “mastered.”  I use air quotes liberally there because I think we can all see what I mean by “master” by that performance.  I also apologize for the sound quality — Josh’s computer was acting up. And I was trying not to laugh while I sang.  Just in case you were wondering, I am embarrassed about my singing voice, but I figured that you already heard it before so you can’t actually be shocked by it.  Plus, the beauty of doing this online is that I don’t actually need to see your face, to process the horror spreading over it as you listen.

I’d also like to take this moment to apologize publicly to my teacher for not practicing as much as I should.  I know it must annoy the crap out of you when I show up to the lesson and admit that I still haven’t really mastered the song we’re working on because I haven’t given it my all.  I’m saying I’m sorry, but I need to temper this with an admittance that I’ll probably do it again.  Though I hold the kids to a totally different standard when it comes to practicing for their music lessons and then tell them that I practiced at night while they were in bed.  So I guess I’d also like to apologize to the kids for fibbing because while I do that sometimes, I don’t actually do it all that often.

*******

This is the absolute last call to contribute a prize to the 2011 Creme de la Creme (scroll down to #5 on that post).  No prizes will be accepted after October 19th at 11 pm EST.  For a prize to be included, you need to add it as a comment on that post.  In doing so, you’re making the commitment to come through with that prize.  Have no idea what I’m talking about?  Click over and read that post because the Creme de la Creme list for 2011 opens on October 20th.

*******

And now the blogs…

But first, second helpings of the posts that appeared in the open comment thread last week as well as the week before.  In order to read the description before clicking over, please return to the open thread:

• “Goodnight, Steve Jobs: a Hero’s Goodbye” (Stirrup Queens) — thanks, Kathy!
• “Rock Your Moxie” (Aiming Low)
• “The Past I Don’t Speak About Here, and Why” (Too Many Fish to Fry)
• “The Silent Struggle” (Adventures of Endo in the Arctic)
• “Perspective: a Rant” (For We Are Bound By Symmetry)
• “Introverted” (Here We Go Again)
• “Falling Away” (Everyone Shut Up But Me)
• “People Plan, and G-d Laughs” (Single Infertile Female)

Okay, now my choices this week.

My Pathway to Motherhood has a post about Yom Kippur, jumping between three Yom Kippurs.  I loved meandering through these three different memories, especially since all three had a very different flavour.

I love The Road Less Travelled’s post about going online for the first time 15 years ago.  It is such a great trip down memory lane — punch cards, Intellivision, dot-matrix printers.  I remember the first time I heard about email when I was 16 — I didn’t believe the boy because it sounded too strange to be true (letters?  That could arrive moments later on someone’s computer?  Over telephone lines?).  Sort of crazy to think about today when hundreds of emails come and go from my inbox daily.

Lastly, Better Full Than Empty has a post questioning why she stepped back on the trying-to-conceive path again when she thought she had escaped it.  She explains: “I want another baby, and this renewed insurance is my chance to make that happen. I have tried all my life to live so I will have as few regrets as possible. When I was rethinking my life’s plan, back when we still didn’t want kids, I came to the conclusion that parents don’t regret having children, but that I would most certainly regret NOT having them.”  Yet trying again means putting herself emotionally back in the throes of IVF again.  She finishes the post with a question, one that many could apply to themselves and their own, personal double-edged sword.

The roundup to the Roundup: Embarrassing myself and Kristin in the process.  LAST CALL FOR CREME DE LA CREME PRIZES.  And lots of great posts to read.  So what did you find this week?  Please use a permalink to the blog post (written between October 7th and October 14th) and not the blog’s main url. Not understanding why I’m asking you what you found this week?  Read the original open thread post here.